Pubdate: Thu, 11 Dec 2014
Source: Day, The (New London,CT)
Copyright: 2014 The Day Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.theday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/293

CONGRESSIONAL DEAL UPENDS D.C. POT LEGALIZATION

Washington - Elected officials and drug-policy advocates hoped to 
make the nation's capital the first place on the East Coast with 
legal pot. They wanted to use the District of Columbia as further 
encouragement for states to make their own marijuana laws, and they 
were optimistic that Congress wouldn't intervene, pointing to a 
Republican caucus that's far from unified against pot. Those hopes 
were crushed late Tuesday when Congress reached a $1.1 trillion 
spending deal that bars the District from legalizing marijuana. 
Rather than trying to vote down the pot initiative - which Congress 
has the power to do - opponents placed language in an essential 
spending bill that would prevent the city from spending any money to enact it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom